Collin

by Jessie Cooke

  “Maybe, but you need to come in and we need to do this through the appropriate channels.”

  Fucking straight arrow. “I’m on my way, but if he hurts her, Hayden…”

  “I know,” he said. Noah hung up and Daniel looked at him and said:

  “You’re not going after her?”

  “We don’t know for sure that’s where he took her. Hayden’s right, I’m so upset that I’m not making good decisions. It won’t help Ava if I run around like a chicken with its head cut off. I need to slow down and look at this from all angles. Brian wants your sister. I have to hope that for now that means she’s safe and he doesn’t mean to hurt her.”

  Daniel’s jaw was set tightly and he was silent for a long time. About three blocks from the police station he said, “Drop me off at the firehouse.”

  “Daniel, don’t go off half-cocked here, okay?”

  “She’s not your sister,” he said.

  “No, but she means a lot to me. I won’t rest until we find her, I promise you that. But like I said, Hayden’s right. We could put her in more danger running around without all of the facts.”

  Daniel didn’t make any promises; he only nodded. Before he got out of the car at the house he said, “This guy…Brian…how do you know he took her?”

  “He’s been stalking her.”

  “Why didn’t she tell us?”

  “She’s embarrassed. He was blackmailing her. He has some pictures…”

  “I don’t care,” he said. “None of us would have cared. She’s our sister and it doesn’t matter what he has a picture of…we would never turn our back on her.”

  “I know,” Noah told him, and he believed it. He could see how much her brothers cared about her every time he saw them together. “Sometimes we convince ourselves that we’re not as worthy as we actually are. We’ll find her and you can tell her she’s wrong.”

  Daniel nodded again and said, “Thanks, Noah,” before jumping out of the car. Noah saw Collin step out and look at him as he was driving away. Soon her entire family would know about Ava’s plight and when this was over, she was going to be royally pissed. As long as she was alive and well, Noah didn’t care.

  Ava was looking at Brian like he’d grown an extra head. He knew she would be surprised, and because he knew her so well, he also knew she would be suspicious.

  “What do you mean…you found him?” she said finally.

  “I found him. He was adopted and living in Half Moon Bay with people who claimed to be his parents. Yuppies who both worked for some software tech firm.”

  “Was? Brian, what did you do?”

  “I took him,” he said, simply. “He’s mine.”

  With panic in her voice Ava said, “No! No, he’s not. Oh my God, he must be so frightened! He’s just a little boy, Brian. What have you done with him?”

  “I’m not a monster, Ava. I didn’t hurt him. He’s my son…our son. He looks just like you, as I always imagined that he would.”

  “Where is he?” She had tears in her eyes…no doubt excited about the reunion.

  “He’s downstairs. I’ll allow you to meet him in good time. First, you and I need to work out our relationship.”

  “Brian, please listen to me. You and I don’t have a relationship…nor do we have a child. He belongs to someone else….” Brian smiled; of course she didn’t know. He had taken care of that. Before he told her, he could see in her eyes that she’d figured it out. “Oh dear God, Brian, what did you do?”

  “He doesn’t belong to anyone but us now, Ava. That’s all you need to know.” Brian didn’t want to fill her pretty head with the gory details…she was too soft for all that. He would take care of the man’s work.

  “Brian, you won’t get away with all of this. It’s kidnapping, don’t you see that? You’ve now kidnapped two people…one of them is a child.”

  “He’s mine, Ava, my child. You had no right to give him away.” Brian felt the old familiar surge of anger through his veins. He didn’t like to be angry with her, but she needed to realize that he was willing to forgive the unforgivable…and she was lucky.

  “Have they called back yet?” Noah was at the police station, filling out paperwork that Hayden was insisting he fill out to list Ava as a missing person so they could put a BOLO out on Brian. He felt like he was losing his mind, and like they were wasting precious time. He felt like he wanted to kill someone.

  “Just now. The house was empty, Noah. I’m sorry.”

  Noah looked at the time. It was almost eight a.m. now. If that was where they were going, they should have had time to get there by now…unless he saw the cops when he got there, and then who the hell knows where he took her? “What about the GPS on his phone?”

  “The phone’s not on and neither is Ava’s.”

  “Shit!”

  “Whatsamatter, Dick? Someone lose a puppy and you can’t find it?”

  Noah needed a target for his anger and James was as good a choice as any. He stood up and grabbed him and pushed the son of a bitch down backwards against the desk behind us. “You want to pick a fight with me tonight, you little prick?”

  “Noah! Not here, not now.” Hayden, always the voice of fucking reason. Noah didn’t let James go but when he turned around to look at him, Collin, Sean, and Daniel were standing in the doorway. Collin and Sean both looked like shit, with signs of the last fire they’d fought in greasy smudges down the sides of their faces. Sean had bandages on both of his hands and one on his arm. Noah let go of the detective then; he wasn’t worth the time in prison, and Ava’s brothers deserved to know what was going on.

  “Noah…where’s Ava?” He could hear the stress in Collin’s voice.

  “We don’t know. Brian has her. Sean, do you have any idea where he may have taken her?”

  “No. I don’t know much about him. Daniel says he’s married. I didn’t know that. If he hurt Ava…”

  “I know—me too,” Noah said.

  “How do you know Brian has her?” Collin asked, still obviously trying hard to keep his emotions in check. He looked like he was already about to implode. Noah wasn’t sure how much he could handle hearing at that point…how much it would take to push him over the edge. He was thankful when Hayden said:

  “We should probably take this in one of the conference rooms. Follow me…”

  “How do you know?” Collin said again, not moving or even acknowledging that Hayden had spoken.

  “Brian was stalking her and he was threatening her with blackmail,” Noah said, as gently as he could. His own stress level was through the roof; there was only going to be so much he could do for Collin.

  “How do you know?” he asked again. His voice got a little deeper each time.

  “She told me.” Noah was losing his patience, but Collin wasn’t going to quit.

  “And you thought letting her go home alone was wise?”

  “Hey, guys,” Hayden said, “we really shouldn’t do this here.”

  “I didn’t let her go home alone,” Noah told him, ignoring Hayden himself then. He was blaming himself enough; he didn’t need Collin doing the same.

  “So you were with her when he took her?”

  “No. I left to go to a crime scene.”

  “And you left her alone, even though you knew this guy was threatening her?”

  “Yes,” Noah said. He could tell him how bad he felt, and that he could kick his own ass…but from the look on Collin’s face, none of that would matter, and Noah was already past trying to pacify him anyway.

  “I guess family’s not your strong point, is it?”

  Hayden knew where he was going and he tried to stop it as Noah felt every muscle in his body tighten. “Collin, that’s enough. In the conference room or you’ll have to leave.”

  “Sure,” Collin said, still not taking his eyes off Noah. He needed someone to be angry at and Noah was going to be it. “We’ll go in the conference room and Noah can tell us all how he left our sister alone with this crazy ba
stard on the loose, the same way he leaves his own sister alone to roam the streets and turn tricks every night.”

  In hindsight, Noah really should have let that go. He could have written it off to emotions speaking. Collin was worried, anxious, upset…but so was Noah, and now he was pissed. “You son of a bitch,” Noah said as he threw the first punch. Collin saw it coming and pulled back. Noah caught him on the edge of the chin but it barely fazed him. He came right back with a punch to Noah’s gut and as the PI doubled over, he pushed forward and bowled Collin down with his body. Sean was trying to get in between them and Noah took him down too. He threw three, maybe four punches…all of them direct hits to Collin’s face…before Daniel knocked him back and Noah jumped on Daniel. Hayden finally got a hold on him and pulled him off Daniel. Everyone in the station was staring at them.

  “In the conference room now!” Hayden said. He was finished being nice. “All of you, or I hook you all up and your angry asses can spend a night in county jail.”

  Sean helped both of his brothers to their feet. Noah had to struggle up on his own. Suddenly he was the bad guy to all three of them. Collin’s nose was bleeding and he already had the makings of a black eye. Ava won’t be happy, Noah thought. Then he had to catch himself as the lump built up in his throat. He hoped that she had a chance to see them all beaten up…he didn’t care if she was mad at him, he just wanted her safe. Noah passed Michael James on his way to follow Hayden and James smiled. He almost punched him too.

  Hayden waited until they were all in the conference room and he closed the door. “You guys are damned lucky the captain isn’t in yet. You should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you. Brawling like a bunch of school kids on the playground. If it wasn’t for Ava I’d arrest the whole lot of you!” Nobody said anything and he went on, “Here’s what we know. Ava told Noah this guy was harassing her. While Noah was gone, someone broke down her door. She’s missing. Her phone is off. Brian Zane’s phone is off. He’s not at his house in Phoenix according to his wife, but I’ve already requested a search warrant. We’re putting out a ‘Be on the Lookout’ for Zane and Ava as we speak. I’m having their phone records pulled and sent over. The San Francisco PD is in the process of searching the house down there. So far, that’s all we have. Now,” he said, looking directly at Noah, “no one in this room is a cop except for me, so the four of you need to go home and wait for my call.”

  “Fuck that!” Collin said.

  “I’m not asking you, Collin. If you can’t assure me that you’ll be at your home until you hear from me…I will keep you here for questioning for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”

  “How would you feel if it was your sister?” Sean said.

  “The same as you,” Hayden said. “But being hotheaded and beating each other up is not going to find Ava. I care a lot about her myself so I promise you, I’m going to do everything in my power to find her and bring her home safe. Go home, boys.” Collin stood up and Sean and Daniel followed his lead. Noah stayed where he was and looked at a spot on the wall as they each gave him a hard stare as they walked by. When they were gone Hayden said, “Are you okay?” Noah nodded and Hayden went on to say, “Collin didn’t mean that about Ciara…he’s just upset.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Noah said, although it did matter. Just the insinuation that he didn’t care that his sister was a junkie and sold her body on the street to pay for her junk was enough to set his insides on fire. Telling him that he didn’t care…that made him want to kill someone. “We need to find Ava.” Noah had done all he could do to save Ciara and he couldn’t. He wasn’t going to fail with Ava.

  “We’re doing what we can, Noah. I have the techies looking into properties that he or his wife own too. Maybe he took her to one of those. I need to talk to you about the ‘Valentine’ from tonight too.” Noah looked up at him but didn’t say anything; he waited until Hayden said, “She wasn’t killed by the same guy.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “First of all, she was a waitress, not a junkie. Her neck was snapped and the preliminary from the M.E. says that it was cut long enough after she was dead that she didn’t bleed.”

  “Was it the same knife?”

  “We don’t know that for certain yet and we won’t until the autopsy is done. But I really don’t think it was him.”

  “Copycat?”

  “Or partner maybe…I just don’t know yet. Did you know her, Noah? Her name was McKenzie Parker.”

  “No. If I knew her, I would definitely have remembered how much she looks like Ava. You said Peterson was home when you got there tonight…how long had he been there?”

  “He says a couple of hours. He says he left work early and just spent the afternoon and early evening walking around the trailheads up by Mystery Mountain. Kyla was asleep when he got home so she couldn’t back him up on the time he got in.”

  “I don’t like him for any of this,” Noah told Hayden. “That’s nothing much more than a gut feeling…”

  “I agree. Whoever snapped that girl’s neck last night was not 150 pounds soaking wet, I would bet on that.” Hayden’s phone was ringing. He looked at the caller I.D. and answered it. “Detective Brandt.” Noah could tell by the look on his face that whatever they were telling him was not good. “Okay, I appreciate the update, Sam. Anything else you hear, I’d really appreciate being kept in the loop. And if you need anything from me…” He listened again and said, “Okay, I’ll get the photo circulated here too. Thanks.” He hung up and Noah said:

  “Was that San Francisco?”

  “Yeah,” he said with a thoughtful look on his face.

  “What did they find?”

  “Ava’s fingerprints weren’t in the house anywhere. Zane’s were all over, but since it’s his house, that’s to be expected. So far they’ve placed his and his wife’s. There are a lot they haven’t placed, but Sam said it looked like they’d been doing renovations so there have likely been a lot of workers in and out. But there was one set that they’re concerned about…”

  “Which are?”

  “You know I’m not supposed to be discussing this with you.”

  “I’m your best friend, Hayden. This is Ava.”

  “There was a double murder in Half Moon Bay about a week ago. It was a wealthy couple who had a nine-year-old boy. The boy went missing that same day. They put out an Amber Alert for him, and they’ve got a lot of calls about sightings, but nothing yet.”

  “What does this have to do with Ava?”

  “Probably nothing,” Hayden said. “But the parents had one of those safety kits done on the kid at a school carnival at some point, so the S.F.P.D. has his fingerprints. They were found inside of Brian Zane’s house.”

  The three of them…Fuck! “Well, like you said, a lot of service people in and out. I’m going to take off. You’ll call me if you hear anything at all?”

  “I will. You too. Go home, Noah.”

  “I will. Thanks, Hayden.” Noah was lying of course; he wasn’t going home. He got in his car and drove straight to the office.

  13

  Brian kidnapped their baby…only, he wasn’t a baby anymore, and he wasn’t theirs. Oh God…he killed that boy’s parents. Ava looked down at her hands; they were trembling. She had begun to realize that he was a little bit crazy when he started blackmailing her, and confirmed it when he kidnapped her. Now, she was afraid he was more than just a little bit crazy and she knew that in order to stay alive and keep…her son…alive, she would have to play his crazy game. She felt the bile in the back of her throat as she said:

  “You’re right. I did the unforgivable. At the time, I thought I was doing the right thing. I was young and scared…” The tears began to sting at the corners of her eyes and she hoped he would see them as regret, and they kind of were. It wasn’t regret that he didn’t have a choice about raising the baby, it was regret that he’d ever found out she was pregnant in the first place.

  He reached out and ran a hand
through her hair. “I know, Ava. That’s why I’m choosing to forgive you. He needs us now, Ava…together. We can take him to Montreal. I have a good friend there. We can start over…be a family, the way it was supposed to be.” Her head was spinning so hard and so fast that she was afraid she was going to pass out. The hammering of her heart in her chest was so loud in her head that she was surprised he didn’t hear it. She took in a long, slow breath and breathed it all the way out before she said:

  “Can I see him?”

  He smiled and ran the backs of his fingers down one of her arms. She shuddered in revulsion and he smiled more broadly. She thought that he might think he was turning her on. “He’s beautiful,” he said. “Just like his mother.”

  “Brian, can I see him, please?”

  He grinned and said, “I’ll go see if he is up. I’m going to lock this door on my way out, Ava…don’t try anything.”

  “I want to see my son,” she told him. She held his gaze until he turned around. As soon as he went out the door and Ava heard the lock click, she fell back onto the bed and curled into a fetal position. Everything was shaking, inside and out. The nausea swirled in her empty stomach and her head swam with so many emotions. Her heart felt heavy as if trying to pump tar through her veins and she felt a sorrow like nothing she’d ever felt before settle down over her. She knew that she had to hold it together…for the boy’s sake. She didn’t know how…but she had to, she was his only hope. Brian had completely lost his mind. Ava could do something stupid and cause Brian to kill her, and that would leave the boy alone with the monster. She already abandoned him once, she wasn’t going to do it again. She had to get that baby out of there and someplace safe.

  She heard the lock turn again and sat up. The door opened and Brian was standing there with a little boy. He looked so small to be nine years old…although Ava really don’t know what a nine-year-old was supposed to look like. His hair was as red as hers and he had the same inquisitive green eyes that she had looked into almost ten years ago, when he was born, only now they were bright red and swollen. The poor thing had been crying. Brian gave him a little nudge and he stepped into the room.